Daedalus: On the Novel: 150:1, Winter 2021

We know what a novel is, but can we say the same about the novel? While any definition of the novel will fail us at some point, the interesting question is not what the novel is but what work the word novel does when we use it, or what reasons we may give for using it or not.The Winter 2021 issue of Dædalus “On the Novel,” guest edited by Michael Wood (Academy Member; Princeton University), features fourteen essays, written by scholars with a variety of approaches and interests, that offer remarkable insights into the behavior of this versatile literary form—how old the novel actually is, shifts in dominant patterns, the art of word-play, connections between the novel and TV and videogames, and the novel in the classroom—glimpses of where and what it has been and where it may go in the future.